Abstract:
The act of walking engages all the senses. As movement through space proceeds, the experiential barrage of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste occurs simultaneously. However, traditional ethnographic methods have tended to privilege the more ‘noble’ sense of sight in the conceptualization of the ‘ethnographic gaze’ and the focus on observation as a primary means of gathering data. Other sensory forms of engagement with the field – including the ‘unseen’ experiences of the ethnographer’s sensorium– are often overlooked in the ethnographic narrative.
This paper suggests that engagement in the act of walking can, in fact, enhance our practices as ethnographers. Walking is an embodied act that provokes the engagement of the senses in connection with the world as embodied experience.
This paper highlights the methodological implications of walking and embodiment in terms of the positioning of the ethnographic Self. Following the work of Patti Lather, it suggests that embodiment is a fourth ‘aporia’ of ethnography – an in-between, impossible place not to be ‘overcome’ but to be considered for its generative possibilities. This conceptualization of embodiment-as-aporia will be presented in terms of the possibilities it suggests for enhancing traditional ethnographic methodologies by moving beyond ethnography’s preference for sight to further enrich tales from the field.
In order to illustrate the generative possibilities of an aporia of embodiment, this paper draws on examples from my own research on the public pedagogies of museums. These examples consider the implications of the ‘museum experience’ for my ethnographic Self as I walk the museum and engage in acts of learning within its spaces, and explore the implications this may hold for contemporary educational research.
This paper suggests that engagement in the act of walking can, in fact, enhance our practices as ethnographers. Walking is an embodied act that provokes the engagement of the senses in connection with the world as embodied experience.
This paper highlights the methodological implications of walking and embodiment in terms of the positioning of the ethnographic Self. Following the work of Patti Lather, it suggests that embodiment is a fourth ‘aporia’ of ethnography – an in-between, impossible place not to be ‘overcome’ but to be considered for its generative possibilities. This conceptualization of embodiment-as-aporia will be presented in terms of the possibilities it suggests for enhancing traditional ethnographic methodologies by moving beyond ethnography’s preference for sight to further enrich tales from the field.
In order to illustrate the generative possibilities of an aporia of embodiment, this paper draws on examples from my own research on the public pedagogies of museums. These examples consider the implications of the ‘museum experience’ for my ethnographic Self as I walk the museum and engage in acts of learning within its spaces, and explore the implications this may hold for contemporary educational research.